


A Fine Name

by Yve



Category: Rune Factory, Rune Factory 4
Genre: F/M, Family Relationships - Freeform, Fatherhood, New Parents, Other, rfhf 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 07:45:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5039929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yve/pseuds/Yve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Forte and Kiel come to visit new parents Bado & Frey just after the birth of their first child and Forte finds the visit unexpectedly emotional.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Fine Name

**Author's Note:**

> A Short entry for fyeahrunefactory's harvest festival event on tumblr! This is for the theme 'Second Generation/Children".

"You may come in now." Came Nancy's gentle, feminine voice as she appeared from behind the privacy curtain. There was a glitter in her eyes now that matched the way her eyes twinkled when she spoke of Dolce as if she were her own daughter.

Forte stiffened and swallowed silently, but did not rise yet. Beside her, Kiel sprang up from the seat beside her in obliviously happy excitement.

"C'mon, Forte! It's time to meet the baby!" He chimed, looking back at her and extending his hand. She took a long breath through the nose and rose, hand on her sword belt, as always.

"You won't be needing that." Nancy said flatly, and reached around Forte's waist.

"Hey! Wai-" The lady knight began to protest, but Nancy clucked dismissively as she unbuckled and removed Forte's belt and sword. Forte sighed shortly. Of course she didn't need her sword in here, but she always felt somewhat naked without it, especially when she was nervous.

"Well, let's proceed, then." She said quietly. Nancy tsked again and rolled her eyes, but the lady knight did not react to it. Kiel pulled aside the curtain and ushered her through.

Within the makeshift birthing room the light glowed a soft, dim orange amidst deep purple-blues of the dark hours in early morning. Upon the white sheets of the hospital bed the new mother, Frey, lay in the exhausted sleep she'd earned after 26 hours of labor, her pale, silky, green hair a haphazard halo around her head on the pillow. Her chest rose and fell beneath the plain blanket and as Forte stared at her friend, a large, masculine hand brushed a little of Frey's bangs from her sleeping face. Forte's eyes followed the hand, instantly recognizable to her, to its owner sitting beside his little wife.

The huge silhouette of the man who'd raised her and her brother since their mother and father had died sat slightly hunched on the hospital chair, his bulk curled protectively over the tiny bundle he held in one great arm against his broad chest. Forte paused and blinked as she looked at him. He'd been her guardian for better than ten years, sure, but the young knight had never thought of the giant, point-eared dwarf as a father. Now he was a father; a real one, still not hers, but someone's true father, regardless.

"How's it feel, Bado? Like you thought it would?" Kiel chirped inquisitively. The big man laughed softly in his deep voice, full of mirth as usual but keeping quiet for the benefit of his infant child in his hands.

"Nah, kiddo. I'd never have been able to imagine quite how this feels, even back when you were this pint sized and your mom let me hold you." Forte looked closely at her guardian and blinked at the bizarre contrast in his features at present. His dark hair was even more ruffled and untidy than usual, even the beard framing his chin looking disorderly and mussed. Dark circles clung beneath his eyes and his face looked more lined than usual. Even so, a vibrancy of bright life and pure joy gleamed in his slightly metallic, blue-gray eyes. Forte's eyebrows climbed up a little ways up her forehead.

"Is it a boy or girl?" Kiel asked, craning his neck to peer at the bundle. Bado chuckled softly again, and arranged the child in his arms so that the visitors could see. Forte inched closer, curiosity pulling her closer to see.

"He's a little boy." The big man rumbled affectionately. The son in his father's huge hands was so tiny, Forte could hardly imagine that such a child could be created from such a large man, regardless of how small and delicate the mother was. Forte tilted her head, slightly bemused as she looked at the little boy sleeping soundly in his father's gentle grasp.

She never had been the type to automatically squeal and coo over babies. Just now, the child looked more like a half-finished sculpture out of flesh rather than clay to her eye, features so soft and vague, she couldn't spot any resemblance in the face itself. But the tuft of fine, dark hair on his round head and the little pointed ears spoke of his father's heritage, even at this early stage. Bado's dwarven blood must be somewhat dominant, she thought distantly as she stared down at the baby. She still didn't feel like fawning, talking in a high-pitched voice to the child, or shrieking with joy the way some women would as soon as they saw a baby, but the lady knight could not deny a certain fascination, now that she was looking at a child that but for blood was family to her.

"He's beautiful." Kiel said fondly, stroking the fine hair with gentle fingertips while the proud father brimmed with happiness as he gazed down at his brand new son. Forte swallowed, staring at Bado, rather than his son, now. She found herself wondering if her own father had looked at her like that, long before she could remember. This man she'd scorned often for a lazy, careless oaf looked so tenderly at his child, fit to burst with the pure affection.

"What's his name?" She asked quietly, voice slightly unsteady. Bado looked up at her, blinked, then smiled approvingly.

"Tristan." He answered, and watched her eyes as they widened with realization instantly. Kiel's head whipped up and stared at the dwarf, too.

"After our dad?" The young man piped. Forte's throat tightened as Bado nodded, smiling warmly.

"Why?" She rasped after a moment, voice tight and strained. Tears burned at the backs of her eyes, prickling uncomfortably. She would not cry. She hated to cry. Bado looked up at Forte and as usual, somehow saw right through her. She hated that too. Why on earth should he of all objectionable folk be able to read her so completely, she thought bitterly. But even so, she could never quite bring herself to hate this man, no matter what obnoxious schemery or half-baked cons his bent imagination cooked up. Now, his face was thoughtful, empathetic, and his expression poured gentleness over his foster daughter, and it made it all the harder on her. She frowned at him. "Why would you do that?" She asked again. Bado sighed, looking at baby Tristan and smiling sadly.

"Because..." He began in his deep-timbered voice, "Your dad was a good man... and he was my friend. That's what I want for my son, too." Forte's eyes burned again, so fiercely she couldn't hold back the tears that rolled down her cheeks now.

"I see." She hissed in a strained voice. "Then... then it is a fine name." She gasped, struggling like mad to pretend control; to pretend emotion hadn't gotten the best of her, regardless of whether everyone could already see it in the tear tracks on her reddened cheeks.

Bado looked up at her and smiled with just the same genuine warmth in his eyes that he'd always given her and her brother, no matter how much she'd butted heads with him. She swallowed around the knot in her throat and shut her eyes tightly, turning about and marching through the curtain again, calling over her shoulder:

"I must return to my patrol, now."

Then she hesitated, one gauntleted arm still holding up the curtain.

"But... if it's alright... I'll visit again soon." She added quietly, uncertainly.

"You know you're always welcome, Forte." Came the quiet, deep-voiced reply she knew he'd give.

"Yes." She nodded, not bothering to look over her shoulder at him as she left. "I know..."


End file.
